


Destroyers of Worlds

by Kadorienne



Category: The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies), Watchmen (Comic)
Genre: Crossover, M/M, Warning: Loki, slight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-09
Updated: 2012-11-09
Packaged: 2017-11-18 07:41:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/558516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kadorienne/pseuds/Kadorienne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrian Veidt finds a god after his own heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Destroyers of Worlds

**Author's Note:**

> AU in the sense that the events in the movie _Thor_ took place in the mid-1970's, but the events of _Avengers_ are still in 2012.

_1977_

 

Adrian knew his visitor was not human the moment he appeared in Adrian's office. It was not only that he conjured himself there out of nowhere; Dr. Manhattan could have done that, though his teleportation caused more noise and flash. It was not the exotic clothing, green silk and black leather adorned with asymmetrically carved gold. The world had seen plenty of humans donning outrageous costumes in recent decades. And the man looked human, tall and handsome, green eyes blazing out of a pale face with some vision known only to himself. But regarding him caused a feeling similar to that inspired by Dr. Manhattan. The same raising of hairs on the back of the neck, the same compulsion to gaze. The same awe.

Adrian stood. He felt no surprise. Alexander was said to be the son of Zeus, delivered by Artemis herself. Such things had long been reckoned mere legends, but Adrian had always believed in his heart that they might be true. And if such beings existed, why should Alexander's spiritual heir not receive visitations from them? 

"I have observed your work with interest, mortal." The god's voice was husky and sent a shiver down Adrian's spine.

"The gods have noticed my project?" Adrian could not move.

The god's lips spread in a smile sharp as a razor and beautiful as the moon. "How could _I_ miss the greatest practical joke in history?"

"You're Hermes," Adrian said, realizing. "God of stealth and cunning."

Those green eyes flickered up and down him. "An apt description, but the wrong pantheon." He held Adrian's gaze, prowling closer. "I am Loki."

Adrian had read very little Norse mythology, but he summoned what he could from his memory. "The one who stole the apples of immortality from the other gods. Brother of Thor. Destined to bring about Ragnarok."

Loki snarled. It was as breathtaking as his smile. "The Thunderer is no brother of mine. He is...." Loki glared about Adrian's office, at the Egyptian artifacts and the desk covered with thick dossiers of the most creative minds on earth. "He is the cast-off bastard of a frost giant, taken in and reared by my father in an act of foolish kindness."

"I am ready to begin the next phase," Adrian breathed. He had never hoped to be able to discuss his plan with someone who could understand it, appreciate it. Only the shade of Alexander himself could have been better. "My fortune has grown enough for me to gather the people I need to construct the trick. It's a shame to have to sacrifice people with such gifts, but it is necessary to save humanity."

The brief flare of irritation had left the god's face and the little smile, full of secrets, had returned. "I have watched you since you first began to lay your scheme in place, Adrian Veidt." He took another step closer and was only a few inches away. "But I wondered what kind of man you would be."

Adrian did not move, did not lower his gaze. He had taken onto himself the prerogatives of the gods, he would stand as equal to them. "And what kind am I?"

Loki raised a hand and traced Adrian's jaw with a cold, pale-skinned finger. "The kind who makes this realm of interest."

Adrian swayed closer. This was a fitting reward for his daring, for his willingness to take the most horrible of sins onto his own soul to save all humanity from itself.

Loki's lips were very cold as they claimed his. Adrian allowed the god to plunder his mouth, accepted his tongue - also very cold - willingly.

When Loki moved back, he held Adrian's gaze, seemed to see into his very soul. "Tell me, mortal. Why are you doing this?"

"Because no one else can." 

"And you think it's your place?" Loki's hand curled around Adrian's neck, not uncomfortably, but enough that Adrian could feel the prodigious strength in it.

"No one else will." He answered in a voice just above a whisper.

Loki's hand slithered up into Adrian's hair, cradling the back of his skull. His other hand came up to rest lightly on Adrian's heart. "And you have the right? To sacrifice some of your fellow men, in order to save the rest of them? To make that choice?"

This was a test. Adrian was certain of it. The gods had come to test his resolve, to see that he knew the gravity of what he was doing. To determine if he was worthy to stand amongst them.

"No," he said softly. "I do not have that right. But I must do it just the same."

Loki's eyes widened, not in surprise but appreciation. And Adrian recognized the glow in them at last. It was the same light he felt burning in his own soul, the light of one with a terrible and wondrous vision.

No other human had ever understood Adrian. Alexander would have, he felt certain of it. But this god understood.

"I am _burdened,_ " Adrian said quietly, "with glorious purpose."

There was approval in Loki's eyes before he pulled Adrian in for another kiss. Emboldened, Adrian at last dared to raise his own arms to embrace Loki in return, to feel the leather and silk and the lean muscle beneath. To trail his fingertips along the pale cool skin of Loki's jaw.

Loki smiled at him, teasing, confident. "And now I know what kind of man you are, Adrian Veidt," he pronounced.

Adrian could feel the divine strength in the god's arms now. The mightiest human would have no chance against him. "What kind?" he asked again. Childish, perhaps, to need that affirmation, but there was not another human in whom he could confide any of this. Perhaps Dr. Manhattan, one day. Or the Comedian, after it was all over and done with - he would get the joke. But that was years to come yet.

"The same kind as myself," that silken voice replied. Loki lifted one long-fingered hand and made a gesture and Adrian's clothes fell to the floor like flower petals. The god continued to speak as those slender fingers traced patterns over Adrian's skin, sending electrifying sensations all the way through him. "The kind who sees what must be done." Cold lips nuzzled Adrian's throat. "The simplest way to do it." He claimed Adrian's mouth again, pressing him almost painfully close, Adrian's bare skin against that elaborate garment of leather and silk. "The _necessity_ of making sacrifices." That inhuman strength propelled Adrian a few steps until his back was pressed to the wall. "The foolishness of mercy. Of sentiment."

Adrian wound his arms and legs around the god, around, for once, a lover worthy of him. And divine ecstasy pierced Adrian, flooded him, wiped everything else out of his mind for long minutes.

When his mind cleared, they were both lying on the plush carpet, the god lying relaxed and boneless, still in full regalia.

Adrian looked at the ceiling, solemn as he reflected. He had now joined the company of gods and heroes. He had not been destined, he had _chosen_ his destiny, and now he felt the full awe of what he had taken onto himself. "Will others visit me?"

"Other gods?" Loki looked away for a second, then one corner of his mouth curled up, sardonic. "No. The path we used to travel between realms was destroyed by the one you thought my brother. I am the only one with the ability to walk the skies without it. It will be many generations before my people can visit yours again."

"Is he being punished?" For a moment Adrian imagined Sisyphus and his rock, Tantalus and his eternal thirst.

There was something in those green eyes, something so cold it burned. "He is." Loki sat up. "And more punishment shall come. I have a gift for you."

Adrian blinked at the change of subject, but sat up, attentive. "What is it?"

Loki held up his hand and in it appeared a folder, a dossier like the ones on Adrian's desk. "The scientist who can replicate Jon Osterman's teleportation."

Adrian opened the file. _Jane Foster_ , the name at the top read. A list of her many degrees, her impressive publications in scientific journals.

"Already she is on the path to unlocking its secrets. From a somewhat different angle. With your help, the help of those you are gathering, she will succeed."

Adrian closed the file and met Loki's eyes. "You know what I must do to those who aid me, when the trick is ready to play."

Loki met his gaze steadily. "I do."

Yes, Loki was like him. Understood that sometimes even the best and brightest must be sacrificed for the rest. He was delivering this woman - was she a friend? A lover, even? - to Adrian, knowing that he had condemned her.

Loki leaned over him, took his breath away with another icy kiss. When the kiss ended, Adrian opened his eyes to find himself alone.

 

_1985_

 

It was indeed Jane Foster who made it possible for Adrian's scientists to recreate teleportation. When Adrian blew up the yacht, he made certain that the first death he made himself feel and experience remorse for was hers. It was the least he could do in respect for such a remarkable woman. In homage to the god who had delivered her to him.

After playing his practical joke, Adrian waited for his divine lover. He even tried, a couple of times, to summon him. Nothing. 

 

_2011_

 

When Loki finally appeared again, Adrian was much older and far less confident. He was beginning to think that his scheme had failed. The détente between the Soviets and the U.S. had held - in the sense that they had never got around to dropping large bombs on each other. But with the guard of both sides let down, other forces had emerged to cause trouble. A militant faction of Islam had arisen out of the resistance to the Soviets' activities in Afghanistan, equally resentful of both the world's great powers, and seldom did a month go by without them setting off a bomb to express it. The Baader-Meinhof and the Sendero Luminoso were not pleased with the cessation of Russia's efforts to spread communism across the globe and had escalated their own activities in response. China steadily built its power as the world watched nervously. The Western world faced the possibility of another global conflict, without Dr. Manhattan to frighten its enemies.

For years after Adrian's trick, the entire world had stood together, ready to repel the alien invaders. But the invaders had, of course, never come, and people had forgotten, more swiftly than Adrian had ever dreamed they might.

Of late, some billionaire brat had taken to flying about in a mechanical suit, and thanks to his expensive lawyers had escaped prosecution for breaking the Keene Act. The lawyers had managed to convince the jury that the activities of Tony Stark did not qualify as those of a mask, and not long after, a campaign to repeal the act had begun. A former CIA agent, Nick Fury, seemed to be the driving force behind the campaign, and Adrian's personal network of informants indicated that he was scheming to put together an entire team of masks, to resurrect the old idea and unleash it upon the world. With Fury's government connections and Stark's money behind the push, repeal seemed likely.

Another round of the same, humans fighting against humans, slaughtering each other, unable to come up with any better way in the absence of an external threat. But the technology to create a giant alien squid had died with the scientists and artists Adrian had sacrificed, and the peace for which they had been martyred was already shattered.

Adrian was in his office again, late one night, gazing wearily out the window at his city, not troubling to turn the lamp on as the sunlight faded. Not until a voice he had not heard in decades but never forgotten sounded behind him.

"It _was_ the greatest practical joke in history."

Adrian turned swiftly, the gears of his chair squeaking softly in protest. "Loki!"

It was him. Even in the dim light Adrian could make out the pallid skin, the tall and slender frame. He switched on the lamp so he could feast his eyes on the beautiful god.

And froze in shock. It was unmistakably Loki, but the skin of his face was mottled, his dark hair limp and dull, his eyes sunken and shadowed.

"What happened? Who could do this to a god?"

Despite his haggard appearance, Loki managed a smile. "I'm afraid I've fallen in with bad company since last we met."

Adrian had risen to his feet involuntarily. 

"Do you remember what you told everyone you were striving for, to explain away the preparation for your prank?"

"Renewable energy," Adrian said numbly. 

"You said that you hoped that without the fear of that scarcity, humans could make peace with each other. Do you think it might have worked?"

With difficulty, Adrian wrenched his mind away from the horror in front of him and thought back to the days when he had planned out his trick. "I... yes, I do. I considered that as a genuine goal, but even Osterman couldn't provide it except on the smallest scale. Humanity is centuries away from solving that riddle."

Loki's rictus smile widened. "It needn't be. With an energy source powerful enough."

"Like what?"

"What you need is on the ocean floor. The Tesseract. I can show you where. But I suggest you hurry. Stark has been searching for it for years, and has come very close."

Adrian walked towards him, hesitant. "And with it...."

"And with it, a warm light for all mankind."

Adrian did not try to hide the relief in his eyes as he reached Loki. "I was beginning to think that humanity needed a new alien invasion every ten years."

A glint showed in Loki's hooded eyes at the jest. Comforted at that sign of the radiant god he knew, Adrian reached out. His hand passed right through Loki's form.

"Only a projection, my friend." Loki's tone was rueful. A spark of humor lit his eyes once more. "But if you find the Tesseract, if you harness it properly, I will be able to come see you in person."

"Tell me how to find this Tesseract." Adrian turned, went to his desk for paper and pen.

Before beginning, Loki studied him thoughtfully. "In the aftermath of your splendid prank, humanity readied itself to fend off an alien invasion. Tell me, do you think they could have, had one happened?"

Adrian shook his head. "They had to try, of course, but fighting beings advanced enough to travel over such distances of space is far ahead of us."

Loki's smile turned to a smirk. He began to describe the location of the Tesseract, gave the coordinates and every other bit of information that might be useful. 

"Find the Tesseract, mortal," Loki said when he had told him everything. "And I shall be restored. And will return to your city in triumph."

Loki vanished, and Adrian sat gazing at the spot where he had been. After a moment, he picked up the phone. It was after hours, but this could not wait. The expedition to retrieve the Tesseract would be launched by noon the following day.

Adrian looked out at his city again, his heart lighter than it had been in years.

It was not too late for him to save humanity. And to bring his divine lover back.

The mighty would look upon his works and despair.

**Author's Note:**

> In case it isn't obvious, this is not an AU where Thor is the frost giant, that's just Loki being a liesmith to someone who'll never find out the truth.
> 
> This is the Watchmen graphic novel 'verse, not the movie 'verse, in which Adrian's prank was the giant alien squid, not the fake Dr. Manhattan disaster.
> 
> Thank you to Grey Bard for betaing.


End file.
